What Happens Behind The Scenes When You Place An E-Commerce Order
When you order products online, there are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes to make that order happen and get out and delivered to your door. Most people don’t think about what happens when they click “buy.” From the time you place your order to the time it arrives at your door, a lot is happening! Let’s look at what happens when you place an E-Commerce order.
Let’s break it down:
You hit that “place order” button…and your order is now in the company’s order management system. Your payment is processed and moves into the next steps of processing. This order system is typically integrated with their full order logistics to move your order efficiently and quickly from fulfillment to shipment.
Your order is sent to the warehouse where either humans or automated robots pick your order…depending on the size of the company and its order fulfillment warehouse, they may use a simple paper packing list to pull your order or they use barcodes to scan and locate items in the warehouse. The packing slip contains specific information, such as a list of item SKUs, product colors, sizes, number of units and location in the distribution center’s warehouse. A barcode can contain that same information. The human staff or robots gather your order and move it to the next step.
Once your order is picked it is ready for packing…staff or automated robots will now pull the best packing materials for your shipment and package your order to achieve the lowest practical dimensional weight, which is calculated by multiplying package length times width times height. Since space on delivery trucks is at a premium, optimizing dimensional weight (or DIM weight) is important to speed transport while also potentially lowering shipment costs. Usually, your package will include return shipping materials and labels in case you wish to exchange or return the item for a refund later.
Now that your order is picked and packed, it is ready for shipment…
The order is sent to a transportation channel or shipping node to be shipped to the customer. Shippers and carriers—be they freight lines, couriers, airlines, FedEx, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) or other carriers—determine freight billable costs by whichever is greater: actual package weight or its dimensional weight. Your package is scanned by the carrier once it is ready to leave the warehouse of the company you ordered from so it can be tracked along the delivery path.
Your order is now on its way through the shipping channels and making its way for delivery to you…It is common for shipping routes to include more than one carrier. For example, FedEx may pick up a package at the fulfillment center that will later be delivered by a regional carrier to the customer’s home. There are many reasons for these hybrid shipping methods. One common example is that local carriers have the agility and flexibility to deliver even to remote areas where most other commercial carriers do not. It’s simply more practical to use a regional carrier for the “last mile”of delivery in those cases.
We are also seeing a move towards using more regional carriers as the main carriers, UPS, FEDEX and USPS, announced surcharges or increased prices as well as constrained capacity due to larger volume of orders. Most shippers are not totally replacing the main carriers, but supplementing with regional carriers to help with cost and capacity issues.
If you need to return your order… returns processing begins with including shipping materials and a return label with the original customer’s order or in some cases, like Amazon, may offer return drop off points for you or require you to ask for a return label by phone or email.
When a customer does return a product for exchange or a refund, the process must be executed carefully to ensure it’s appropriate to restock it. Obviously if the product malfunctions, it can’t be restocked. Nor can a soiled item. Returns processing involves quality control checks and sorting returned products accordingly. Return products are then restocked, returned to a vendor or manufacturer for a distributor refund or credit, or sent to a recycling center depending on the company return process.
What could seem like a simple process of moving your order from the moment you place it to picking, packing, shipping…there are many moving parts along the way. How quickly and efficiently a company operates their fulfillment services could mean faster or slower shipment and delivery schedules.
We know how important it is for our customers to get their shipments in the schedule they need them. If you would like for information on how we can move your small or large orders, please contact us.
